Beaches

Tayrona’s beaches and the jungle that edges them are the irrefutable stars of the park. If arriving by boat, you’ll get dropped off at Cabo San Juan, an attractive palm-fringed beach where many budget visitors stay; further west into the park from here are two more beaches, the second being a nudist beach (30min). Twenty minutes’ walk east of Cabo San Juan brings you to La Piscina, a beach good for swimming and snorkelling, with calm, deep water. From there, it’s another twenty-minute stroll east to La Aranilla, a narrow strip of sand framed by huge boulders, fine for swimming, followed almost immediately by the long, beautiful, wave-lashed stretch of Arrecifes where signs warn you that over two hundred tourists have drowned here; swimming is extremely dangerous due to rip tides and strong currents. Another forty minutes or so east along a wooded, muddy trail takes you to Cañaveral and the entrance to the park, where the beach is good for sunbathing but the rip tides make it unsuitable for swimming.